So sleepy...

Nick has always been notorious for not falling asleep anywhere except in his crib. As a baby he would rarely fall asleep at other people's houses, and he almost never slept in church. This was often frustrating for me and Jacob, but lately some of that has been changing. I want to post what he did today, it was so cute...

Earlier today I had been trying to put Nick down for a nap because he was acting sleepy. He refused so I continued doing what I needed to do.

I was upstairs doing something in my room and Nick decided to go downstairs. I called down for him a couple of times and he would respond. But the third time, there was no response so I came down to see what he had gotten into, and I saw this...

Apparently he had changed his mind, gotten his pillow and blanket, but couldn't come upstairs because he had shut the gate. Instead of calling for help or crying, he just plopped down and went to sleep there!

What you can't see or smell in this picture is his very poopy diaper... but he slept right through his diaper change. I guess he has learned that sometimes when you're tired you just have to sleep, regardless of where you are.

Halloween!

Well this year Halloween was a lot of fun for the Pierce's. Nick was overjoyed that he got to be Batman, and that he got to wear his costume often weeks before Halloween. We were invited to a trunk-or-treat for a different ward, and we had a great time! Nick loved seeing Hailey and Abby and Noah there in their costumes, and he especially loved trunk-or-treating and getting all that candy. He had a good time playing with Jason in the cars too. Unfortunately... I didn't take any pictures :( Brought the camera but forgot all about it. I need to get better at that.

On Halloween day we went out to Grandma and Grandpa Pierce's house for trick-or-treating. Nick was a little bit shy with the people at their doors but he quietly said "trick-or-treat" and "thank you." It was funny because he wouldn't get close enough to them for them to be able to put the candy in his pumpkin. They would either toss it in or he would take it from them and put it in himself ;)But he really did have a good time. He loved to tell people he was Batman and show them some Batman combat moves and he enjoyed seeing and talking about all the other kids' cool costumes. When Nick was all done and ready to go back to "Matma's" house, he said, "That's fun! All done! Lets go home." It was very abrupt, and very cute. He went trick-or-treating with Grandpa Pierce, "Catwoman Kitty-Cat" (me), and Robin (Jacob). Here are a few pics I did take:

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Win It Forward

A few people I know are doing this and after a little hesitation I've decided to take part! Tis the season of giving :)

Here are the tagging instructions: The first 3 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done by the end of the year if you're local, I'll give myself til the end of January 2012 if I need to mail it.
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something unusual.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. OR, since I know there are some people who read my blog who don't have a blog of their own, you can win if you are willing to make something for three random people. The first 3 people to leave a comment telling me they will win it forward get a fabulous homemade gift by me! Oh, and if you have a blog, be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it.

Yay for cooler weather!

We have been loving this awesome weather lately...and that's about the most exciting thing to happen to us lately!
But I want to do a better job of updating this blog so I'll update anyway.
Things are great for us :) We loved General Conference...

... as you can see.
No we really did, this was just the very end of the second Saturday session. Love my boys. I enjoyed all of the talks, especially the ones on parenting, I thought were especially pertinent to myself. But the talk by President Eyring on the Book of Mormon was awesome. He invited us to drink deeply from the pages of the Book of Mormon daily. I appreciated his message.
The pregnancy is going well :) I wish I could get an ultrasound at each prenatal appointment so I can watch my baby grow. I can't get enough of the pictures I have from my 10 week check-up. I'm now 13 weeks and feeling good. I haven't dealt with a lot of pregnancy sickness, although I have had a cold and flu here and there. I never did get an ultrasound of my rib, but if it was fractured it's slowly healing. I took some antibiotics and that helped a lot with the cough, along with a blessing I got from Jacob. So I'm mostly better! Yay.
Nick had a bad flu last week. It had been circulating around our ward, but he's better now.
We'll find out the gender of the baby on November 28th! I'll be 21 weeks. That's later than I would have liked but it was between either barely 19 weeks or 21 weeks and I don't want to risk having a mis-reading, so I opted for the later.
Jacob is working, working, working! The first couple years as a teacher are the hardest because it's so much to get used to. But we're excited for the end of this first term because then he'll just be re-teaching all the stuff he has taught so far. And he already taught the second semester material during his semester of student teaching earlier this year. So we're going to celebrate by going to Apple Hill on the 15th! I cannot wait! I love Apple Hill because it brings back so many memories from when I was young and it's so wonderful to enjoy the fall season up in the Hills. And of course, I cannot wait for the Apple Pie! Yum, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
We were tempted to think about buying a house with these phenomenally low interest rates, but we decided it would be better to wait a couple of years, since a teaching job is not exactly the most reliable thing in CA right now ;) I had even found the PERFECT house and everything :( But we don't want to dig ourselves too deep too soon. The place we're at right now is great, and we love our ward. So I'll just have to be patient.
Life is great, we are so blessed! We're so excited for the festivities of this Holiday season, and for all the babies that will be coming to our friends and family within the next few months! It's a mini baby boom. Gotta love it!

A New Addition!

Pierce baby #2 is on the way! I'm 10 weeks, due around April 9th. I'm feeling a girl vibe, but we'll find out for sure near Thanksgiving.

Nick has mixed emotions about the baby on the way...

He's happy...



And sad...



And scared...



And crazy excited!





In other news, I may have fractured a rib from all the coughing I've been doing for the past month. I'll go in for an X-ray this week to see for sure. Lets hope the medicines I was given do help to clear this cough up! I haven't been able to sub because of it, so it's been nice to spend more time with my boy at home, but I do look forward to being well enough to work some.

But in all, we feel so blessed with everything that has happened lately. We found out I was pregnant two days before Jacob got his new job. So now we have a great benefits package that just started up this month. I was finally able to be seen for this annoying cough as well as for the first prenatal check-up. The timing has worked out well!

Update

Hello Everyone,

I know I'm likely writing to myself and possibly just a couple other people, so you probably already know...
Jacob got a job! He will be teaching Biology and General Science at a school nearby. He also passed the Physics CSET, so he is qualified to teach Physics as well, although he won't be this year. (he is also qualified to teach English at the junior high level, but we probably won't have to ever tap in on that.)School starts on Monday so he has been real busy preparing for that. We're so grateful he got this job! We were expecting to have to wait at least a year for him to get a job, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Other than that, the most recent really cool thing to happen in our household is the new Robin cape I made for Nick! It will be part of his Halloween costume; Jacob will be Batman ;) Maybe I'll even be catwoman.





I'm going to re-do the neck line of the cape so it scoops down and is a little more comfortable.

The first of many costumes to come, I'm sure!

Summer Break!

Hello everybody! Yes, we're still alive.
Tomorrow is Jacob's last day of his credential program! He will be able to teach secondary science. He is going to take the Physics CSET and if he passes then he will be able to teach that as well. He has put so much work into these past three semesters, I am so proud of and grateful for him. This past month he was able to take over as a long-term sub for one of the teachers in his department at school, so that was really nice to get paid for a portion of his time. But we look forward to when he has a job, which will (hopefully!) be this next fall. He will be applying for jobs all around the Sacramento/Elk Grove area. We really love the Sacramento area and most of our family is around here, so we hope to settle here.

Lately I have been working as a substitute teacher, 2-4 days a week, and the event specialist job (passing out samples & selling product) a couple Saturdays a month. Nick has been going to an in-home child care place in EG twice a week, and he has really enjoyed that. It has been good for him to get some time to be with peers and he really likes his caretaker (sounds weird to call her that, I just don't want to put specific names on here...). And he spent Thursdays with Grammy and Papa. He loves going over there, he talks about Papa a lot and now he calls Grammy "Mart-ma", which is what he calls his grandmas and grandpas.It has been a busy semester, and we're looking forward to a break and having Daddy around more.

I am training for a half marathon! On my little boy's 2nd birthday, July 16th, I'll run the Davis Moo-nlight half marathon, in the evening. We'll probably have a lunch party for Nick that day and I'll head up later on to do my thing. I doubt Jacob and Nick will come; that's a bit too late for my little guy to be out. I have been wanting to run a half for a very long time, but haven't been consistent enough in my running. So I'm finally doing it, and I can't wait. I ran 6 1/2 miles yesterday, and I'm pretty sore from that, but I think 2 more months will be sufficient time to get ready.

And next week we're going CAMPING!!! Camping with the Pierces is always a ton of fun, plus this year Nick is going to be able to enjoy it even more. We fully anticipate having a very happy boy while camping; he is going to be in his element :) I hadn't ever been to New Brighton Beach until I started dating Jacob, and it is my kind of camping! It's not just camping; it has the beach just a short walk away, Santa Cruz beach boardwalk like a mile away along with the wharf, it's close to town so you can get supplies pretty quick and go to the movies, plus it has showers, which is always a plus :) It's the ultimate camping vacation.

So we are alive and well. We are trying to soak up each day with our little boy. He is getting so big so fast. I'll do an update on our sweet baby shortly!